POTD: Roland Special Malfunctions

For those not familiar, the Roland Special is a modified Glock 19 with KKM comped barrel, suppressor height sights, Trijicon RMR06, slide work by ATEi- front and top serrations and mounting of RDS.

Recently a photo has been going around showing a malfunction with running a compensated pistol. I have heard that this was staged but it address the fallacy that some people have that adding things to your EDC weapon will cause it to malfunction when you need it most.

Of course this photo has gone somewhat viral and people have spoofed the idea of comped Glocks having malfunctions. Here are some of the more hilarious ones I have found.

This one is my favorite.

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Drew Coleman

Reason I wouldn’t want to carry a compensated gun as my self defense gun – the redirected muzzle blast is going to deafen you even more.

Phillip Cooper

That’s what you’d think…. except, no.

Sunshine_Shooter

Now that I think about it, redirecting gases is not the same as redirecting sound. Sound is a pressure wave, which flows in all directions equally. Comped or not, you’re being hit with the same blast, so you’ll be the same amount of deaf.

If it really concerns you, carry a SiCo Maxim 9.

Cal S.

Whether or not it redirects sound, I can confirm that a the muzzle blast of my AR-10 didn’t seem as loud before I put a comp on it than afterwords. It seriously made me question my choice…

TechnoTriticale

Comps are well known to be “loundeners” – so much so that the ATF was thinking of making them mandatory, despite the fact that they don’t actually increase the report, but merely redirect it. Another faction in the agency also pointed out that they also act as flash hiders and usually require threaded barrels.

Internal debate got so acrimonious that several policy staffers had to retreat to their safe spaces (special padded rooms marked by triple Make Believe Gun Free Zone signage).

Pseudo

Alright, I can see where you’re coming from, but think about it like this: An explosion creates a pressure wave. What are shaped charges? What the brake/comp is doing is comparable. If you really don’t think that it makes a difference, go stand next to someone shooting something with a brake and see how it feels, even with ear pro. It really does make a difference (and it makes sense that it does).

Sunshine_Shooter

So, how much of that shaped-ness (technical term) is from increased pressure, and how much is increased mass flow? Are the two inseperable? If not, which causes deafness?

Joshua

I’ve sat spotter for a comped .338, I nearly went deaf from the pressure wave that hit me, the shooter didn’t notice a thing.

After multiple comments that make a lot of sense, I’m retracting my statement. Sound can be directed. I still believe that a compensator doesn’t make you extra deaf in a real world shooting, though.

Dracon1201

Not the shooter unless he is indoors, it does direct sound to the side, which is bounced by the walls. Overall, yes, it does get louder. Also, deafness is a leveled thing. I’ve experienced between 30-80% hearing loss in my life. The more damage you do to your ears, the higher the damage and the longer it lasts. Yes, a comp will increase this.

Sunshine_Shooter

Lets say I was to touch off 5 rounds of 147gr +P from a normal barrel and got +2% deafness. If I had a comped barrel, would I be going +3% deaf? or +5%? Or something more like +2.1%?

I can quantify how much better my shooting is w/ a comp (especially with +P rounds), but can we determine what price we would pay with our ears?

Dracon1201

Yes, actually, and that is a variable that can be tested, I’m just not going to volunteer.

Sunshine_Shooter

Yeah, I don’t want to volunteer either.

raz-0

I can tell you from having ROed a lot of comped guns at indoor matches, that they are really rough on the ears compared to non comped guns (and this is the important part) IF you are near the shooter.

The first component is that to drive a comp, you need to have the gasses to drive it going out the end of the barrel and still rapidly expanding. This means that ammo than can drive a comp effectively is louder. For a roland special being fed a diet of cheap plinking ammo form wal-mart, this doesn’t come into play. What really happens is the comp is simply not really doing a lot of work due to anemic ammo.

The second component is blast redirection.All the sound that would be going away from the shooter towards the front is now redirected to the sides.

The third component is position of the listener. They are usually worst for someone close to either side of the shooter than the shooter themself. On most ranges, they seem overall louder because previously most of the noise was directed forward and had to traverse the range and be reflected back to annoy people. Now it just has to travel for the ports to the observers. Do something fun like shoot in a narrow hallway (walls on either side), and you will find shooting a gun gets a whole lot louder. Shooting a comped gun gets downright nasty. Ditto from say inside a vehicle.